Mom Update 1-15-10

Another day of improvement for Mom! Mom was more alert today as we were there with her. She would still try to move the ventilator tube and bite down on it and gag on it some. She was following some commands today. She would shake her head when we would ask her some questions and hold/squeeze our hands. She would turn to look at us when we were talking to her or wanted to tell her bye or give her a kiss. She would even wave us over and point to the tube telling us she wanted it O-U-T! :-) She was even trying to talk to us, but we had a very hard time trying to read her lips with the tube in her mouth.

They did try the "test" again today to see if they could remove the ventilator, but said she just wasn't quite able to breathe well enough on her own. They are going to try again tomorrow. They are being very cautious about taking it out because it would be so traumatic to her if the tube had to go back in after it was removed. We were teasing today saying that Mom's throat will be quite sore after the tube is removed, more so because she would be yelling at us for not taking it out sooner! :-)

More good news...they took her off of the external pace maker and her heart is beating regularly and at a decent rate on its own. Isn't that just amazing that we have all this technology and amazing surgeons that can do things like this? Totally turn your heart "off" and then make it beat again when they are ready for it to?

They started giving her some nutrition through a tube in her nose.

Her kidneys are still functioning quite well and producing urine. Her creatitine levels have continued to go up, so they took her off of one of her diuretics. We are anxious to see how she does without it. So far, so good. She has continued to loose weight (excess fluid) daily.

So, to sum it up...Progress seems to be slow, yet steady. We are hoping to have her out of ICU early next week.

Please continue to pray for her. Not only Mom, but my Dad who spends every minute he can with her and doesn't leave the hospital. Also, my aunt and grandfather who have been at the hospital with them since last Wednesday.

It's the small things (like looking at us or squeezing our hand) that make us so happy these days. Mom is so loving and I know she wants to tell us how much she loves us. We just keep reassuring her and letting her know just how much we love her!